John McCain's Family Ties to Jewish Organized Crime Syndicates in Arizona

Russia Insider editor's note: This is a reprint of an article from August 2008 by the excellent Michael Collins Piper. Vladimir Putin once famously speculated that he thought McCain suffered from mental instability caused by his long detention in Vietnamese prisons, when trying to explain why McCain was so fanatically pro-Israel and hostile towards Russia. Perhaps Putin's vaunted intelligence resources hadn't filled him in on McCain's family ties.

If you still doubt that the big media is determined to keep under wraps the organized crime origins of the $200 million fortune of John McCain and his wife Cindy, take note of how the prestigious Washington Post touched on the issue in its July 22 edition. Rather, instead, note how the Post covered up the matter.

The Post reported: Cindy Lou Hensley grew up as an only child, and a privileged one, in a large rancher in an upper-class section of Phoenix. Her dad, Jim Hensley, founded what became a large Anheuser-Busch distributorship, and her mom, Marguerite, was a proper belle who emphasized impeccable manners.

The Post also added, almost discretely, that Mrs. McCain’s wealth “may” exceed $100 million (although most sources estimate it is worth $200 million or more) and—for the record—that “she was the apple of her father’s eye.”

The Post did not mention that Mrs. McCain’s father was a highly-placed fixture in the Arizona branch of the national organized crime syndicate: He was the chief henchman of the late Kemper Marley, Arizona point man for infamous mob chief Meyer Lansky and his powerful partners-in-crime, the super-rich Bronfman family of Montreal.

In that capacity—for 40 years until his death in 1990—Marley was undisputed political boss of Arizona, acting as the behind-the-scenes power over both the Republican and Democratic parties.

As such, his wealth and connections played the primary role in advancing John McCain’s political career from the start.

Although some Democrats have muttered that Mrs. McCain’s business interests could impact on her husband’s decision-making as president, none has dared cross the line and make reference to the fact this vast wealth was spawned by what others have indelicately (although quite correctly) called “the Jewish Mafia.”

Correspondents for American Free Press have repeatedly referenced the McCain fortune’s ties to the Lansky-Bronfman syndicate going back to 2000 when McCain first ran for president. Most recently, in its July 14/21 issue AFP reported the story again. At that time, AFP pointed out that in its June 30 edition, Newsweek (owned by the Washington Post’s parent company) also suppressed McCain’s mob link.

Newsweek said Mrs. McCain’s family “was deeply rooted in Arizona,” and that her father “was one of the most prominent men in the state,” who was “a World War II bombardier . . . shot down over the English channel,”—in other words, a war hero like McCain.

Newsweek did not mention (or even hint of) the racketeering, corruption and murder associated with Hensley and his patrons.

Newsweek said Hensley “borrowed $10,000 to start a liquor business” which became one of the largest Anheuser-Busch distributorships in the country and pointed out that the vast Hensley influence and fortune “got [McCain] access to money and connections” after he divorced his ailing first wife and married his then mistress, Cindy Hensley, and settled in Arizona where he first ran for office in 1982. But there was much more to the story.

Newsweek did not mention what AFP had reported and which is republished here in order to keep this important story before the American public:

To repeat: McCain’s father-in-law was the top lieutenant for Kemper Marley, the Lansky syndicate’s chief Arizona operative who acted, in turn, as the front man for the Bronfman family—key players in the Lansky syndicate.

During Prohibition, the Canadian-based Bronfmans supplied—and thus controlled—the “spigot” of liquor funneled to Lansky syndicate functionaries in the United States, including Al Capone in Chicago.

After Prohibition, Lansky-Bronfman associates such as Marley got control of a substantial portion of liquor (and beer) distribution across the country. Marley’s longtime public relations man, Al Lizanitz, revealed that it was the Bronfmans who set Marley up in the alcohol business.

In 1948, 52 of Marley’s employees (including Jim Hensley, the manager of Marley’s company) were prosecuted for federal liquor violations. Hensley got a six month suspended sentence and his brother Eugene went to prison for a year.

In 1953 Hensley and (this time) Marley were prosecuted by federal prosecutors for falsifying liquor records, but young attorney William Rehnquist acted as their “mouthpiece” (as mob attorneys are known) and the two got off scot-free. Rehnquist later became chief justice of the Supreme Court and presided over the “fix” that made George W. Bush president in a rightly disputed election.

Arizona insiders say Hensley “took the fall” for Marley in 1948 and Marley paid back Hensley by setting him up in his own beer distribution business.

Newsweek implied Hensley’s company was a “mom and pop” operation that became a big success, but the real story goes to the heart of the history of organized crime.